Process of rolling sheet metal.



Y PATENTED SEPT. 3, NO?.

l lll l l ww 4 ,Y A y y.

NORTN. PROCESS 0F RLLING SHEET METAL.

L :LED asm. r', 190e.

ArPLroATIoN P sheetbars or tin-bars.

UNITED STATES EDWIN NoIiToN, or NEW YORK, N.

` PROCESS OF ROLLING SHEET METAL.

vSpecification of Letters Patent.

Patented sept. s, 1907.

Applicants sied september 17, Igea. serial No. 335,030.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN NORTON, a citizen of the United States,residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have inventedor discoved new and useful Improvements in Processes of Rolling SheetMetal, of whichl the following is a specification.

My invention relates'to the art oi rolling sheet-metal, and moreparticularly to the art of. rolling sheet-metal to such thin sheets asare made into tinplate, sheetiron, galvanized iron, etc.

Heretofore in rolling iron or steel into thin gages for the uses abovenamed, it has been customary, first, to roll the billet, slab, or ingotof steel, into what is termed In modern mills, these bars are rolled incontinuous mills vdirectly from the heated ingot into long narrow barsapproximately eight `inches wide, from onefourth to one-half of an inchthick, and from thirty to sixty feet long. After being thus rolled,these bars are delivered to a cooling table while they are still at acomparatively high or an oxidiiing heat, and after being allowed tocool, are sheared into the desired lengths and supplied to the sheet andtin mills as ltheir raw material. These shearod tin or plate bars are,in the usual practice, reduced to the de.- sired thinness for tin-plateetc. in the following manner: They are first placed in heating furnacesand when hot, are taken thereromi'by workmen with tongs and givenseveral passes between the rolls' ol a tin-plate inill the bars beingfed into the .mill with their length parallel to the rolls oi the mill.ihe bars are thus elongated until too cool for further rolling. They arenext returned to a second furnace and 'reheated and again rolled, thistime in two layers, one sheet being laid on another. Ait'er.

this step, they are doubled in the center into iour thicknesses and theirregular ends caused by the rolling are sheared off. The doubled packis then placed in the furnace and when properly heated, is drawn out bythe rolls. The pack is again doubled, and its ends shearedoff. Thisdoubled pack, now having eight thickness is put into the furnace,`reheated Iand iin-ally rolled into the desired gage. It is thenshear-ed at the ends, cut in the required lengths, opened, and putthrough the sut-- ceeding operations oi annealing, pickling, coldrolling,

and tinning or coating with the desired metal. From:

the foregoing, it will. be seen that the labor and lui-.l required inthese numerous lieatings and rollings are i1nportant and costly iteins,while the loss from the numerous shearings amounts to' about twelve percent. oi the weight of the bars.`

In my improved process which I will now describe, all these items o costare greatly reduced and the iinished surface of the sheets producedthereby is greatly improved, as will be more fully hereinafterexplained.

The drawing accompanying this specification and forming lapart thereofrepresents diagrammatically a plan oa mill for the practice of myimproved process.A

The drawings are not intended to show the machinery Complete, but onlytheiact that machinery oi diiierent general characters is present. Thedrawing contains but a single view and is to be read as if thel sectionswere arranged in tandem with the lines AB coincident.

ln practicing iiiy process, l heat the billet, ingot or slabin thefurnace l, which is preferably of thewellknown htinuous type.Whenvsuiiiciently heated for.

rolling it is caused to pass to the conveying table V2, whose rollersare run by the motor 3 continuously in a direction to convey the billet,ingot or slab to the roller table 4,'whose rollers are 'caused to rotatealternately in opposite digections by the motor 5.0i any selected re- 1versible type.

6 represents a universal reversing mill in line with the conveyor table2, and 7, a second conveyor table, in

line with the conveying table 4 but on the-opposite oi the iiiilltherefrom. The rollers oi the table 6 lare driven in opposite directionsbythe motor 8.

9 represents a conveyer table inline with the table 7,

having inconnection,therewith any desired number of shears l() by whichthe ends oi the sheet may be cut ofi and the saine divided into thedesirednumber oi sections.

].'l,is a pusher by which the sheared sheets aretransierred to theconveyer l2, which may be ol any type, and which places the packs ofsheets, assembled on the table 9. in line with the rolls 13 of acontinuous mill. This mill has its rolls running at successively greaterspel-.ds i'roni lei'tto right on the drawing. The inechanisiii loi'accomplishing this is well-known and need not be described.' The packsoi sheets delivered from the rolls 13 pass to the table 14, from whichthey maybe pushed la! orally upon one of the conveyor tables l5.

Returning how 'to the billet, ingot, or slab which l traced to theconveyor table 4, itis passed in a wellknown iiiiinnor buck and forthseveral times through the rexf'ijrsing mill (5, or il; is, in any othermanner,'re-.

dur-ed to a long plate varying in thickness iroin onelenth lo ,one-tourtli oi' an inch and havingany desired width` After being cross-slivarodbythe shears' l0 into platos from eight to sixteen i'oetr'loiig, theseplates-are iiiiitclicd or piled, one Vupon another', by any suitableineclniiiisiii or by hand in piles ol' Your to eight thicknessi-s, asdesired, and after being reheated, if desired, they are transita-rod tothe continuons train oi reducing rolls.

The pack, as it passi-s through the rolls lli, is kept constasitlystretched between passes, because the rolls speeded so as to run atsuccessivi-ly higher speeds in the esl direction ol' their leed,thespeeds being set to secure the desired stretching action. 'llieresult of the stretching is that, when tho sheets have been reduced tothin gages, they will leave the niill free from buckles and they will boprevented from adhesiolnone to another, whereby the opening of the packis facilitated. After 'shearcd inte lhorter length.

'fspacc between the-several stands el rolls .shall he about ncveri'ieetl'mm conter lh ventenne that the meta-l, alter the lirst pasa-'shall hehclll lirinly in the hito el' murc than ciw Sland'ol' rolls. By so doingI ani enabled not only to roll the metal, b ut als() te stretch the samehctwecn passes. It thus hecomcs practicable tu rell at n single heatingand at one 'pasgage llnungh llutrain all ordinary gages ei sheet steelin lcngths nl' approximal el y une hundred and sixty feet. Y The economynl' my process over that in use at present is most apparent, as th(lpack rolling lis thus completed bollire the shearing takes place.'Vln'placc 0i shearing after each rolling, as rcqnircdundcr presentmethods,` the ends only require to he shearcd. ll', how/'ever7 theconditions are such that a reheating becomes ilesimhlc, thc plates 01'packs 0l' them may be relic-ated. v v

While I prel'cr to roll the vfinished packs iii four to eightthicknesses, it is ebvious that any ilesircd numlhcl" oisuperpesedplates er sheets can be rolled andv stretched that can be convenientlyplaced pnc above )assed the mint where oxidation can occur as the fleave thel last mill 0i the continuous train at a: black hint. For thisreason the surfaces el' thel finished sheets are more smooth and tak@ ahigher polish in cold rolling than (le plates er sheets rolled hy theordinary pmi-css from regular lin or sheet bars which have. heenvallmved tu exidize alter being rolled.

lclaimfl ln a pre nf forming sheebinelal, rolling a pack el' pile ufslice. imultaneously at a phrallty oi places and concurrently therewithstretching the metal between conseem ive rell passes, whereby theseveral sheels compusing the pack ur pile are prevented from adheringone te

